A nascent trend, the rise of the “Gamebar”

Kevin Williams, publisher of The Stinger Report (an enewsletter everyone in the industry should follow), first brought this emerging trend to our attention in his October 2012 issue. At first we thought the type venue that Kevin was writing about, a Gamebar, was just an anomaly. After Kevin’s 3d article about them in an industry magazine, we did some serious research ourselves and found that Kevin was onto something.

They come by many names – beercade, gamebars, speakeasy arcade (Kevin’s term) and arcade-themed bar. Whatever the terminology, they all fit what we define as social-tainment.

NOTE – The owners and operators of the Barcade chain wanted to confirm that they retain the brand “Barcade” and have been in operation since 2004 (not 2007 as stated).